Asking for help – who knew?

I spent the first two weeks of term four filing in for a teacher while they were away. It was a nice change of pace to be with the same groups of students for more than a day!

When I was covering for this teacher, I was left the tasks that the students were to be doing, and extra work should they finish. This was great! I had access to the learning management system (as I usually do at that school), and could see how the two weeks was going to be laid out. The courses I was covering were 8 English, 9 Religious Studies (2 sections), and 11 English (2 sections). Definitely NOT my comfort zone, but that’s okay – I’m here to try new things! 

When I had initially met with the teacher who was going to be away, the tasks seemed straightforward enough, but when the block arrived I was scrambling as I was finding gaps in what the students were to be doing, and that they had questions I couldn’t answer. The first day was tough – not to mention everyone was a little off after two weeks of school holidays and daylight savings time had just come into effect. 

Knowing I had these classes for the next two weeks, I emailed the lead teachers for the subjects and asked if we could get together to sort out the lessons. Luckily the projects the students were doing were done across all sections of the course, so I was able to get lots of clarity and scaffolded documents to help structure the students’ work. I am so grateful for the support the lead teachers could give me. 

The rest of the block went smoothly, and I LOVED waking up each day knowing what my schedule would be. That is an overlooked mental load of subbing that I am not going to miss once I get a regular position! A couple times I was asked to cover extra classes, but they tried to not do that too much. I was also asked to give some feedback to the students as they worked on their projects and that filled my open classes too. I did what I could, given my limited subject area knowledge. Luckily, lots of the skills I’ve learned and taught before are cross-curricular, and could be applied.

Having this two week block reignited my excitement to one day have classes of my own with students to create routines and grow with. I am really loving where I am right now and the opportunities I am getting to try out different age levels, subject areas, and to see how different schools create cultures of learning and respect. With subbing, I also have the time to read some of the many books that were recommended to me while I was in my BEd program – a hidden bonus! 

See you soon!

– Kate